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A 



CHAUTAUQUA IDYL 



BY 



GRACE LIVINGSTON 




BOSTON 
D LOTHROP COMPANY 

FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS 



Copyright, 1887, 

BY 

D. Lothrop Company. 






INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

My Dear Mr. Lothrop : — 

I have read Miss Livingston's little idyl with much 
pleasure. I cannot but think that if the older and 
more sedate members of the Chautauquan circles will 
read it, they will find that there are grains of profit in 
it ; hidden grains, perhaps, but none the worse for 
being hidden at the first, if they only discover them. 
Miss Livingston has herself evidently understood the 
spirit of the movement in which the Chautauquan read- 
ing circles are engaged. That is more than can be said 
of everybody who expresses an opinion upon them. It 
is because she expresses no opinion, but rather tells, 
very simply, the story of the working out of the plan, 
that I am glad you are going to publish her little poem : 
for poem it is, excepting that it is not in verse or in 
rhyme. Believe me, 

Very truly yours, 

Edward Everett Hale. 



A CHAUTAUQUA IDYL. 



Down in a rocky pasture, on the 
edge of a wood, ran a little brook, 
tinkle, tinkle, over the bright pebbles 
of its bed. Close to the water's 
edge grew delicate ferns, and higher 
up the mossy bank nestled violets, 
blue and white and yellow. 

Later in the fall the rocky pasture 
would glow with golden-rod and 
brilliant sumach, and ripe milk-weed 
pods would burst and fill the golden 

i 



2 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

autumn sunshine with fleecy clouds. 
But now the nodding buttercups and 
smiling daisies held sway, with here 
and there a tall mullein standing 
sentinel. 

It was a lovely place : off in the 
distance one could see the shimmer- 
ing lake, to whose loving embrace 
the brook was forever hastening, 
framed by beautiful wooded hills, 
with a hazy purple mountain back 
of all. 

But the day was not lovely. 
The clouds came down to the earth 
as near as they dared, scowling omi- 
nously. It was clear they had been 
drinking deeply. A sticky, misty 










W 








A Chautauqua IdyL 5 

rain filled the air, and the earth 
looked sad, very sad. 

The violets had put on their gos- 
samers and drawn the hoods up over 
their heads, the ferns looked sadly 
drabbled, and the buttercups and 
daisies on the opposite bank, didn't 
even lean across to speak to their 
neighbors, but drew their yellow 
caps and white bonnets further over 
their faces, drooped their heads and 
wished for the rain to be over. 
The wild roses that grew on a bush 
near the bank hid under their leaves. 
The ferns went to sleep ; even the 
trees leaned disconsolately over the 
brook and wished for the long, 



6 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

rainy afternoon to be over, while 
little tired wet birds in their branches 
never stirred, nor even spoke to each 
other, but stood hour after hour 
on one foot, with their shoulders 
hunched up, and one eye shut. 

At last a little white violet broke 
the damp stillness. 

" O dear ! " she sighed, " this is so 
tiresome, I wish we could do some- 
thing nice. Won't some one please 
talk a little?" 

No one spoke, and some of the 
older ferns even scowled at her, but 
little violet was not to be put down. 
She turned her hooded face on a 




£X ' -.-, I. 









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OFF IN THE DISTANCE 

ONE COULD SEE 

THE SHIMMERING LAKE. 



jw 

^ 



. . . - . 



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fen \ 



tv/'#h^i^ 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 9 

tall pink bachelor button growing 
by her side. 

This same pink button was a 
new-comer among them. He had 
been brought, a little brown seed, by 
a fat robin, early in the spring, and 
dropped down close by this sweet 
violet. 

" Mr. Button," she said, " you have 
been a great traveller. Won't you 
tell us some of your experiences ? ,: 

"Yes, yes; tell, tell, tell," babbled 
the brook. 

The warm wind clapped him on 
the shoulder, and shook him gently, 
crying, — " Tell them, old fellow, and 
I'll fan them a bit while you do it." 



IO 



A Chautauqua IdyL 



" Tell, tell," chirped the birds over- 
head. 

O yes ! " 
cho- 
rused 
the but- 
tercups 
and dai- 
sies. 
The little 
birds opened 
one eye and 
perked their 

LND WHAT IS CHAUTAUQUA J^g fa ^ \^^. 

ing attitude, and all the violets put 
their gossamer hoods behind their 
ears so that they might hear better. 




A Chautauqua Idyl. n 

" Well, I might tell you about 
Chautauqua," said pink bachelor 
thoughtfully. 

" And what is Chautauqua?" ques- 
tioned a saucy little fish who had 
stopped on his way to the lake to 
listen. 

" Chautauqua is a place, my young 
friend, a beautiful place, where I 
spent last summer with my family," 
said the bachelor in a very patron- 
izing tone. 

" Oh ! you don't say so," said the 
naughty little fish with a grimace, 
and sped on his way to the lake, 
to laugh with all the other fishes 
at the queer new word. 



12 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

" Go on, go on, go on," sang the 
brook. 

" We lived in a garden by a house 
just outside the gates/' began Bach- 
elor. 

" What gates ? " interrupted the 
eager daisies. 

"Why, the gates of the grounds. " 

" What grounds ? " 

" Why, the grounds of Chautauqua. ,, 

"But who is Chautauqua?" asked 
the puzzled violets. 

" Don't you know ? Chautauqua is 
a beautiful place in the woods, shut 
in from the world by a high fence 
all around it, with locked gates. It 
is on the shore of a lovely lake. 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 13 

Many people come there every year, 
and they have meetings, and they 
sing beautiful songs about birds and 
flowers and sky and water and God 
and angels and dear little babies 
and stars. Men come there from 
all over this world, and stand up 
and talk high, grand thoughts, and 
the people listen and wave their 
handkerchiefs till it looks like an 
orchard full of cherry trees in 
blossom. 

" They have lovely singers — ladies 
who sing alone as sweet as birds, 
and they have great grand choruses 
of song besides, by hundreds of 
voices. And they have instruments 



14 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

to play on, — organs and pianos, and 
violins and harps." 

" How beautiful, " murmured the 
flowers. 

"Tell us more," said the brook; "tell 
us more, more, more, — tell, tell, tell!" 

" More, more," said the wind. 

" It lasts all summer, so the people 
who can't come at one time will come 
at another, though my cousin said she 
thought that one day all the people 
in the world came at once. There 
must have been something very grand 
to bring so many that day. There 
were not enough rooms for visitors 
to sleep in, and Chautauqua is a 
large place, the largest I was ever 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 15 

in. Yes," reflectively, " I think all the 
world must have been there." 

The little white violet looked up. 

" There was one day last summer 
when no one came through the pas- 
ture, and no one went by on the 
road, and all day long we saw not 
one person. It must have been that 
day, and they were all gone to Chau- 
tauqua," she said softly. 

" I shouldn't wonder at all," said 
Bachelor. 

Then they all looked sober and 
still. They were thinking. The idea 
that all the people in the world had 
come together for a day was very 
great to them. 



1 6 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

At last one spoke: 

" How nice it would be if all the 
flowers in the world could come to- 
gether for a day," said the little violet. 

" And all the birds," chirped a spar- 
row. 

"And all the brooks and lakes and 
ocean," laughed the brook. 

"And all the trees," sighed the tall 
elm. 

"Oh! and all the winds. We could 
make as beautiful music as ever any 
organ or piano made." 

"But what is it all for?" asked a 
bright-eyed daisy, 

"To teach the people all about the 
things that the great God has made, 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 17 

and show them how to live to please 
Him, and how to please Him in the 
best way," promptly answered Bach- 
elor. 

"There is a great good man at the 
head of it, and I heard a lady say 
that God Himself sent him there to 
take care of Chautauqua for Him, for 
it is all made to praise God. They 
have schools, — everybody studies, but 
it is all about God that they learn, — 
about the things He made, or how 
to praise Him better, and all the talk- 
ing, — they call it lecturing, — is to 
help men to praise and love God 
more. They have three beautiful 
mottoes : 



1 8 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

" ' We study the word and works 
of God/ ' Let us keep our Heavenly 
Father in our midst/ and, ' Never be 
discouraged/ " 

" Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful/' 
said the old forest tree. 

" It is just what we need," piped 
one of the birds. " We don't praise 
God half enough. Here we've been 
sitting and sulking all the afternoon 
because it is raining, and never one 
thankful chirp have we given for all 
the yesterdays and yesterdays when 
it hasn't rained. We need a Chautau- 
qua. I declare, I'm ashamed!" And 
he poured forth such a glad, thankful 
song of praise as thrilled the old for- 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 21 

est trees through and through and 
most effectually waked the napping 
ferns. 

" Yes," said the listening daisies, 
when the song was done and the bird 
had stopped to rest his throat, "we 
do need a Chautauqua/' 

"Let's have a Chautauqua!'' cried 
the brook. 

" But how could we," said the wise- 
eyed violet, " when we know so little 
about it ? " 

" I will tell you all I know," said 
Bachelor graciously. "You see we 
lived just outside the gates, and peo- 
ple used often to come and buy my 



22 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

brothers and sisters. Once a young 
man came and bought a very large 
bunch of them and took them to a 
young lady in a white dress, and she 
wore them everywhere for three or 
four days — you know our family is 
a very long-lived one, and we are 
something like the camel, in that we 
can go a long time without a drink 
of water — well, she kept them care- 
fully and took them everywhere she 
went, and they saw and heard a great 
many new things. One evening this 
young lady sat in a big place full of 
people, and an old lady sitting behind 
her said to another lady, ' Just see 
those pink bachelor buttons ! My 



A Chautauqua IdyL 23 

mother used to have some just like 
them growing in her garden, years 
and years ago, and I haven't seen 
any since/ The young lady heard 
her, turned around and gave her a 
whole handful of my brothers and 
sisters. After the meeting was out, 
the old lady carried them away with 
her, but one slipped out of her hand 
and fell on the walk, and some one 
came along in the darkness and 
crushed her. Quite early the next 
morning our neighbor, Mr. Robin, 
going to the market for a worm for 
breakfast, saw her lying in this sad 
state, and with great difficulty brought 
her home to us. She lived only a 



24 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

day or two longer, but long enough 
to tell us many of her experiences. 

" After she had faded and gone, our 
friend Robin went every day to hear 
and see what was going on inside 
the great gates, and every night when 
the bells were ringing " — 

" What bells ? ,; interrupted an im- 
polite buttercup. 

"The night bells for the people to 
go to sleep by. They rang beautiful 
music on bells by the water to put 
the people to sleep, and in the morn- 
ing to wake them, and they had bells 
to call them to the big place to 
praise God, and hear the lectures and 
singing/' 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 25 

" Beautiful, beautiful, ,, murmured 
the brook. 

"And every night," proceeded the 
bachelor, " when the bells were ring- 
ing we would wake up and Robin 
would tell us all about the day inside 
the gates. Of course I can't remem- 
ber all, but I will tell you all I 
know." 

" Perhaps I can help you a little," 
spoke out an old fish who had come 
up the stream unobserved some time 
before. " I lived in Lake Chautau- 
qua myself for some years until my 
daughter sent for me to come and live 
with her in yonder lake." 



26 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

They all looked at the old fish 
with great veneration, and thanked 
him kindly. 

" Well, how shall we begin ? " said 
an impatient daisy. 

" I should think the first thine to 
be done is to make a motion that we 
have a Chautauqua/' Bachelor said. 

Then rose up a tall old fern. " I 
make a motion to that effect." 

" I second it," chirped a sparrow. 

" All in favor of the motion say 
'aye/ 3 said Bachelor, in a deep, im- 
portant voice 

And then arose such a chorus of 
" aye's" as never was heard before 
in that grove. The wind blew it, the 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 27 

brook gurgled it, the great forest trees 
waved it, all the little flowers filled 
the air with their perfumed voices, 
the far-off lake murmured its assent, 
the purple mountain nodded its weary 
old head, the sun shot triumphantly 
through the dark clouds, and all God's 
works seemed joining in the " aye 
aye, aye/' that echoed from hillside 
to wood. 

" A unanimous vote, I think," said 
Bachelor, after the excitement had 
somewhat subsided. 

" The next question is, When shall 
we have it ? " 

" Oh ! right away, of course," nodded 



28 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

a buttercup. "See! the sun has come 
out to help us." 

"But/' objected white Violet, "we 
can't. We must invite all the flow- 
ers and birds and brooks and trees 
all over the world, and they will have 
to get ready. It will take the flow- 
ers the rest of this summer and all 
of next winter to get their dresses 
made and packed in their brown 
travelling seed trunks. I'm sure it 
would me if I were to go away from 
here for the summer, and it is late 
in the season already. We couldn't 
get word to them all in time." 

"Yes," said the fish, "and there are 
the travelling expenses to be arranged 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 29 

for such a large company. We 
should have to secure reduced rates. 
They always do on Chautauqua Lake/' 

" Oh ! as to that" said the wind, 
" I and the birds would do the trans- 
portation free of charge, and the brook 
would do all it could, I'm sure." 

" Of course, of course," babbled the 
brook. 

" That is very kind of you indeed," 
said Bachelor. " But I should think 
that the earliest possible beginning 
that we could hope to have would 
be next spring." 

After much impatient arguing on 
the part of the buttercups and dai- 
sies, it w r as finally agreed that the 



30 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

first meeting of their Chautauqua 
should be held the following spring. 

"It must last all summer," they 
said, " because some of us can come 
early and some late. There is the 
golden-rod now, it never can come till 
late in the fall." 

" Of course, of course; certainly, 
certainly," chattered the brook. 

" What comes next ? " softly asked 
the wild rose. 

" The next thing to do is to ap- 
point a committee to make out the 
programme/' remarked the fish. 

" Committee! Who is that?" cried 
a butterfly. 




"THERE IS THK GULDEN-ROD NOW." 



A Chautauqua IdyL 



33 



" Programme ! what's programme ? " 
chirped a sparrow. 

" O dear ! w r e need a dictionary/' 



sighed the roses. 




'committee! who's that?" 



" What's a dictionary ? ' ; asked a 
little upstart of a fern. 

11 Silence ! " sternly commanded 
Bachelor. "Will Miss Rose kindly 
explain the meaning of dictionary, 
after which Mr. Fish will proceed to 



34 <d Chautauqua Idyl. 

tell us about programme and com- 
mittee/' 

Little Rose blushed all over her 
pretty face, and after thinking a mo- 
ment, replied, — 

" A dictionary is a book that tells 
what all words mean/' 

" Oh ! " sighed the wind, " we must 
have a dictionary." 

Mr. Fish having made a dash up 
stream after a fly, now resumed his 
sedate manner and spoke : 

" My friends, a programme says 
what we will have every day, and 
a committee are the ones who make it." 

"Then let's all be committee," said 
the buttercup. 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 35 

11 That's a very good plan/' said 
Bachelor. " Now, what shall we have? 
They always have a prayer meeting 
first at Chautauqua." 

" We can all pray," said the elm. 
" Let us have a prayer meeting first 
every morning to thank the dear God 
for the new day, and let the rising 
sun be the leader." 

" That is good," said the flowers, 
and bright rays of light, the sun's 
little children, kissed them tenderly. 

" What is next ? " 

"They have a large choir, and every 
morning after the prayer meeting they 
meet and practise with the great 
organ and piano and band." 



36 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

"We will be the singers," chorused 
the birds. 

"I will tinkle, tinkle, like a piano," 
sang the brook, " tinkle, tinkle, tin- 
kle,—" 

" I will play the band, for I have 
very many instruments at my com- 
mand, and my friend the thunder will 
play the organ, while you, dear old 
trees, shall be my violins and harps, 
and every morning we will practise," 
said the wind. 

"What do they have next at Chau- 
tauqua ? " asked a pert blackbird. 

" Lectures," said the fish. 

" What are lectures ? " 

"Talks about things." 







S I WILL TINKLE, TINKLE, LIKE A PIANO," 
SAID THE BROOK. 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 39 

"What things?" 

" Oh ! evolution and literature and 
theology and philosophy and art and 
poetry and science, and a great many 
other things." 

The high-sounding words rolled out 
from that fish's mouth as if he ac- 
tually thought he understood them. 

Silence reigned for a few minutes, 
deep and intense, at last broken by 
the white violet: 

" We never could have all those, for 
we don't know anything about them. 
And who could talk about such things? 
None of us." 

Silence again. They were all think- 
ing earnestly. 



4° 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 



" I don t believe it. Not one word/' 
chattered a saucy squirrel. " That's a 
fish story. As if you could get on 
dry land and go to lectures." 




"i don't believe it," chattered a saucy squirrel. 

"Oh!, very well, you needn't believe 
it if you don't want to," answered the 
fish in a hurt tone, " but I heard a 
man on board the steamer read the 



A Chautauqua IdyL 41 

programme, and those are the very 
words he read." 

" If we only had a dictionary," 
again sighed the rose. 

" Dictionary, dictionary, die, die, dic- 
tionary," murmured the brook, thought- 
fully. 

" A dictionary is absolutely nec- 
essary before we can proceed any 
further," said the south wind. "And 
as I am obliged to travel to New 
York this evening, I will search every- 
where, and if possible bring one back 
with me. Anything can be had in 
New York. It is getting late, and I 
think we had better adjourn to meet 
again to-morrow. I hope to be able 



42 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

to return by two o'clock. In the 
meantime, let us all think deeply of 
what we have heard, and if any one 
can see a way out of our difficulty, 
let him tell us then." 

The sunbeams kissed the flowers 
good-night, the forest trees waved fare- 
well to the good wind, the brook 
called, " Good-night 1 sweet dreams till 
to-morrow, to-morrow, to-morrow/' and 
all the air was soft with bird ves- 
pers. 

Into the bright sunshine of the 
next afternoon came the winds and 
the eager birds to the place on the 
bank where the violets grew. 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 45 

The daisies leaned far over the 
bank to listen. 

The south wind came bringing two 
or three torn sheets of an old dic- 
tionary. 

" It is all I could find, and I've had 
hard work to get this," said he. " I 
went in at a window where lay an 
open dictionary.— I had no idea that 
a dictionary was such a very large 
book. - — It was an old one, so I had 
no trouble in tearing out these few 
leaves, as the paper was so tender. 
I took them out of the window and hid 
them in a safe place and went back 
for more, but just as I was turning 
the leaves over to find evolution, some 



4-6 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

one came up and shut the window, 
and I had to crawl out through the 
cracks. Well, I have all the < Ps ' 
and some of the ' T's ' ; we can find 
theology and poetry. 

" Philosophy, too," said wise Violet. 

" My dear, that is spelled with an ' f/ ' 
said the kind old wind patronizingly. 

" O, no ! I am sure you are mis- 
taken. It is ' p-h-i-1 ' ; look and see if I 
am not right/' 

The wind slowly turned over the 
leaves of his meagre dictionary, and, 
sure enough, there it was, — " p-h-i-I 
o-s-o-p-h-y." 

"Is it there? What does it say?" 
questioned the eager flowers. 



A Chautauqua Idyl 47 

" Philosophy, the love of, or search 
after, wisdom, slowly read the wind. 

" Oh ! " said the flowers, " is that 
all it is ? Why, we know philoso- 
phy." 

" I think the forest trees could lec- 
ture on philosophy," said the wind. 

" Yes, yes, yes," they all cried. 
" The forest trees, for they are very 
old and have had longer to search for 
wisdom than we." 

" Very well ; three lectures a week 
on philosophy, by the old forest trees ; 
write it down, please," cried Bachelor. 

The secretary, a scarlet-headed 
woodpecker, carefully carved it on the 
trunk of an old tree, and I think you 



48 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

can still find the minutes of that day 
written in lines of beauty all over the 
tree. 

" Theology is the next word," an- 
nounced the wind, and again turned 
over the leaves of their precious dic- 
tionary. 

" The science of God," he read. 
" Science, what is science ? ' If we 
only had the " s's ! " 

" I know what it is," chirped a bird. 
" I hopped into the schoolhouse this 
morning, and a book was open on the 
desk, and no one was there, so I 
hopped up and took a look to see if 
there was anything in it to help us. 
The first words my eye fell on were 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 49 

these, — ' science is knowledge/ And 
I didn't wait for any more, but flew 
away to sit in a tree and say it over 
so that I wouldn't forget it. Going 
back a little later to see if I could 
get any more words, I found the 
schoolhouse full of dreadful boys. As 
I flew away again, this little piece of 
paper blew out of the window, and I 
brought it, thinking it might be helpful." 
As he finished speaking, he depos- 
ited a small fragment of a definition 
spelling-book at the foot of the elm 
tree, and flew up into the branches 
again, for he was a bashful bird, and 
this was a very long speech for him 
to make before so many. 



50 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

" Good, good, good," cried all the 
committee. 

" To go back to theology," said the 
wind. " It is the science of God. 
Science is knowledge, therefore the- 
ology is knowledge of God. That is 
a very great thing. Who is able to 
lecture on the knowledge of God ? " 

Silence all. No one dared to vol- 
unteer. None felt worthy to do so 
great a thing. 

Out spoke a shy little wren. "Last 
night I slept in a notch close over 
a church window, and the window 
was open and there was a meeting 
of the people there and the minister 
read out of the Bible these words : 












FOR HE WAS A BASHFUL BIRD. 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 



53 



1 The heavens declare the glory of 
God, and the firmament sheweth his 
handiwork/ " 

She paused a moment to gather 
courage, and then said, "Why couldn't 
the heavens teach theology ?" 




"THE HEAVENS SHALL TEACH THEOLOGY." 

"Bless your heart, little wren, that 
is the very thing," cried the bluster- 
ing north wind And all the flowers 
cried, — " The heavens shall teach 
theology ! " 



54 ^4 Chautauqua Idyl. 

The sky bowed its assent and said, 
"I will do my best to perform the 
wonderful work entrusted to me." 

And the happy brook murmured, 
" Glory, glory, glory ! the glory of 
God." 

" Now we will see what this bit 
of paper has for 'us," said the wind 
as he picked up the paper at the foot 
of the elm. 

" Ah ! What have we here ? Evo- 
lution ! Just what we want: ' evolu- 
tion, the act of unfolding or unroll- 
ing. 

He stopped with a thoughtful look. 

" Yes, I see. - As the young leaves 





and flowers unfold. The 
plants must take full 
charge of this department, 
I think. I remember once 
turning over the leaves of 
a fat, dark-gray book, with 
gilt letters on its back. 
It lay on a minister's 
window-seat, and it looked 
interesting, so I read a 
few minutes while the 
minister was out and not 




56 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

using it, and among other things that 
I read was this, and it stayed with 
me ever since : ' A lily grows myste- 
riously. Shaped into beauty by se- 
cret and invisible fingers, the flower 
develops, we know not how. Every 
day the thing is done : it is God/ 
You see, my dear," addressing him- 
self to a pure white lily that had 
only that morning unfolded its deli- 
cate petals to the sun, " you see a 
great many don't understand how it 
is done. You need to tell how God 
has made you able to unfold. ,, 

" Yes, we will, we can," they all cried. 

" The flowers will speak on Evolu- 
tion," wrote down Woodpecker. 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 57 

" There are three more words spoken 
by our friend Fish, still unexplained, 
— literature, — " 

" I know what literature means, 
Mr. Wind, it is books, " announced a 
bright butterfly who had just arrived 
on the scene. 

" Are you sure ? " questioned the 
fish doubtfully. 

" Yes ; of course I am. I went with 
a big pinch-bug one day into a great 
room full of books, and he said, when 
he saw the shelves and shelves full 
of them, ' My ! what a lot of liter- 
ature ! ' " 

The committee looked convinced, 
but now came the question of books, 



58 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

— Where should they get them ? How 
could they lecture on books, when they 
knew nothing about them ? 

"We must just send word around 
to all the flowers and birds and trees 
and everything, to see who can lecture 
on books, and we must all keep our 
eyes and ears open/' said a buttercup 
bud. 

"We shall have to lay that on the 
table for the present," said the wind. 

" But we haven't any table," chat- 
tered a squirrel. 

"A well brought-up squirrel should 
know better than to interrupt. We 
shall have to put this aside, then, 
until we can learn more about it. In 



A Chautauqua IdyL 59 

the meantime, let us proceed with tke 
next word on the list, poetry." 

" I know," said the brook. " A bit 
of paper lay upon my bank, miles and 
miles away from here, too high up 
for me to reach, but I could read it. 
It said, ' For poetry is the blossom 
and the fragrance of all human knowl- 
edge/ And I have said it over and 
over all thejway here." 

" Ah ! the flowers shall give us 
poetry," said the good old wind. 

Bachelor bowed his head and said, 
"We will try." 

" Try, try, try," chattered the brook. 

"Art is next, I believe," said Bach- 
elor. 



60 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

" Yes, art," said a squirrel. 

" Art is making pictures," said the 
moss. 

" Then the sunset must paint them, 
for there are no pictures made like 
those of the sunset," said the wind. 

The sun hastened to mix his paint, 
and in answer to the request that he 
would be professor of art, painted one 
of the most glorious sunset scenes 
that mortal eye has ever looked upon. 
Rapidly he dashed on the color, deli- 
cate greens and blues blending with 
the sea-shell pink, and glowing with 
deep crimson and gold, till the as- 
sembled committee fairly held their 
breaths with delight. The crimson 



/ 

\ 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 61 

and gold and purple in the west were 
beginning to fade and mix with soft 
greys and tender yellows, before the 
committee thought of returning to 
their work. 

"What a lot of time we have 
wasted," said the oldest squirrel ; " to- 
morrow is Sunday, and of course we 
can't work then, and now it is time 
to go home. ,, 

" Not wasted, dear squirrel," said 
White Violet, " not wasted when we 
were looking at God's beautiful sun- 
set." 

Bachelor looked down at her in all 
her sweetness and purity, and some 
of the flowers say that later when he 



62 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

went to bid her good-night — under 
the shadow of a fern — he kissed 
her. 

" To-morrow being Sunday reminds 
me that we have not made any ar- 
rangements for our Sunday sermons. 
They always have great sermons at 
Chautauqua, and I have often heard 
the passengers on the steamer scold- 
ing because the boats did not run on 
Sunday, for they said the great men 
always kept their best thoughts for 
sermons. ,, This from the fish. 

They all paused. "We can't any 
of us preach sermons, what shall we 
do?" questioned a fern. 

"I'm sure I don't know; we might 



A Chautauqua Idyl. O 

each of us go to church and listen to 
a sermon and preach it over again/' 
said a thoughtful bird. 

" But we couldn't remember it all, 
and by next summer we would have 
forgotten it entirely, 1 ' said one more 
cautious. 

"Well, we must go," said the wind. 
" Monday we will consider these sub- 
jects. To-morrow is God's day, and 
we must go immediately, for it is 
getting dark." 

And so they all rested on the Sab- 
bath day, and praised the great God, 
and never a wee violet, nor even 
a chattering chipmunk, allowed his 
thoughts to wander off to the great 



64 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

programme for the next summer, but 
gave their thoughts to holy things. 

The busy Monday's work was all 
done up, and the committee gathered 
again, waiting for the work to go 
on, when there came flying in great 
haste, a little bluebird, and, breathless, 
stopped on a branch to rest a mo- 
ment ere he tried to speak. 

"What is the matter ?" they all 
cried. 

" Were you afraid you would be 
late ? You ought not to risk your 
health ; it is not good to get so out 
of breath, " said a motherly old robin. 

11 Oh ! I have such good news to 









W*1 


^ ; ;™' , 






* m 




HP 1 ' 


. ~\ .. 


-*— 


:: #;■ #;- : | ! ; ; 



"CLOSE to a window where sat an old lady. 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 67 

tell you," cried the little bird as soon 
as he could speak. " I sat on a 
bough this morning, close to a win- 
dow where sat an old lady, who was 
reading aloud to a sick man, so I 
stopped to listen. These are the 
words she read, — - ' Sermons in stones, 
books in running brooks/ I didn't 
hear any more, but came right away 
to study that. I was so glad I had 
found something to help us. Two 
things in one." 

They all looked very much amazed. 

" Why, we didn't think we could 
do anything ! " cried the stones, " and 
here we can do one of the best 
things there is to be done. Thank 



68 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

the dear God for that. We will preach 
sermons full of God and his works, 
for we have seen a great many ages, 
and their story is locked up in us." 

" And the brook shall tell us of 
books," said the old wind. " There 
is good in everything, and we shall 
try not to feel discouraged the next 
time we are in a difficulty." 

" Books in running brooks," said 
the brook. " Books, books, books. 
And I too can praise Him." 

" This morning," said a sober-look- 
ing bird, "a small girl just under my 
nest in the orchard, was saying some- 
thing over and over to herself, and I 




"A SMALL CTRL JUST UiNL>Ek MY JNLST IN THE ORCHARD." 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 71 

listened ; and these were the words 
that she said: 

The ocean looketh up to heaven as 'twere a living 
thing, 

The homage of its waves is given in ceaseless wor- 
shipping. 

They kneel upon the sloping sand, as bends the 
human knee, 

A beautiful and tireless band, the priesthood of 
the sea, 

They pour the glittering treasures out which in 
the deep have birth, 

And chant their awful hymns about the watching- 
hills of earth. 

" If the ocean is so good and grand 
as that he ought to do something at 
our Chautauqua. Couldn't he? God 
must love him very much, he wor- 
ships him so much." 



72 A Chautauqua IdyL 

" Yes," said the elm tree. " I have 
heard that a great man once said, 
1 God, God, God walks on thy wa- 
tery rim/ " 

" Wonderful, glorious," murmured 
the flowers. 

" They tell stories at Chautauqua — 
pretty stories about things and peo- 
ple ; and I have heard that Ocean has 
a wonderful story. We might send 
word to ask if he will tell it," sug- 
gested Bachelor. 

" I fear he cannot leave home," 
said the wind, " but we might try 
im. 

So it was agreed that the wood- 
pecker should write a beautiful let- 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 73 

ter, earnestly inviting him to take part 
in the grand new movement for the 
coming summer. The brook agreed 
to carry the daintily-carved missive 
to the lake, and the lake to the river, 
and the river would carry it to the 
sea. 

Bachelor spoke next : " They have 
a vSchool of Languages at Chautauqua, 
could we have one ? " 

" I have thought of that," said the 
fish, " but who could teach it?" 

"That is the trouble," said Bach- 
elor, slowly shaking his head. 

11 1 know," said a little bird. " I 
went to church last night and heard 
the Bible read, and it said, ' Day unto 



74 <d Chautauqua Idyl. 

day uttereth speech, and night unto 
night sheweth knowledge. There is 
no speech nor language where their 
voice is not heard/ I think the day 
and the night could teach the School 
of Languages. 

"The day and the night, the day 
and the night," said the . brook. 

" Yes," said the oldest tree of all, 
" the day and the night know all lan- 
guages. " 

" We must have a Missionary Day 
and a Temperance Day," said the 
wise old fish. 

"What is a Temperance Day?' 
asked a young squirrel, who was not 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 75 

yet very well acquainted with the 
questions of the day. 

" My dear," said his mother, " there 
are some bad people in the world 
w r ho make vile stuff and give it to 
people to drink, and it makes them sick 
and cross; then they do not please God, 
and there are some good people who 
are trying to keep the bad people from 
making it, and the others from drink- 
ing it ; they are called Temperance." 

" Oh ! " said the squirrel, " but why 
do the folks drink it? I should think 
they'd know better." 

"So should I, but they don't. Why, 
my dear, I must tell you of some- 
thing that happened to me once. I 



76 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

lived in a tree at a summer resort, 
that year, and just under my bough 
was a window ; a young man roomed 
there for a few days, and every morn- 
ing he would come to the window 
with a black bottle in his hand, and 
pour out some dark stuff and mix 
sugar and water with it, and drink it 
as if he thought it was very good. 
I watched him for several mornings, 
and one morning the bell rang while 
he was drinking, and he left the glass 
on the window-sill, and went to 
breakfast. I hopped down to see 
what it was, and it smelled good, so 
I tasted it. I liked the taste pretty 
well, so I drank all there was left. 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 77 

Then I started home, but, will you 
believe it? I could not walk straight, 
and very soon I could hardly stand 
up. I tried to climb up a tree, but 
fell off the first bough, and there I lay 
for a long, long time. When I awoke 
I had such a terrible pain in my 
head ! All that day I suffered, and 
didn't get over my bad feelings for 
several days. I tell this as a warn- 
ing to you, that you may never be 
tempted to touch anything to drink 
but water, my dear." 

" You must tell that story, Mrs. 
Squirrel," said Bachelor. "And we 
will call it a story of intemperance, 
by one of its victims." 



78 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

" I will, with all my heart, if it 
will do any one any good," she re- 
sponded 

" Yes, we must ha\ r e a Temperance 
Day and all make a speech on drink- 
ing cold water," said the fish. 

" And dew," said the violet. 

" I have always drank water, and 
never anything else, and I think one 
could scarcely find an older or a 
healthier tree than I am," said the 
elm. 

" That is true," said the fish. 

" Cold w r ater, cold water, cold water," 
babbled the brook. 

" Yes, we can all speak on Tern 
perarice Day ; we will have a great 



A Chautauqua IdyL 79 

platform meeting. That is what they 
call it at Chautauqua when a great 
many speak about one thing. I heard 
a man telling his little girl about it 
on the boat," said the fish. 

And the woodpecker wrote it 
down. 

" What was that other you said ? " 
asked a sharp little chipmunk. 

" Missionary Day," said the fish. 

" And what is that ? " 

" Why, there are home missions 
and foreign missions, " said the fish. 
" And they talk about them both. I 
think they have a day for each, or 
maybe two or three. Missions are 
doing good to some one, but I don't 



80 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

exactly see the difference between 
home and foreign missions/' 

"Why," that is plain to me," said 
Bachelor. " Home missions is when 
some one does something kind to you, 
and foreign missions is when you do 
something kind to some one else/' 

"Of course; why didn't I think of 
that before ? " said the fish. 

"One day last year I was ver) 7 
hungry," said a robin, " very hungry 
and cold. I had come on too early 
in the season. There came a- cold 
snap, and the ground was frozen. I 
could find nothing at all to eat. I 
was almost frozen myself, and had 
begun to fear that my friends would 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 81 

come on to find me starved to death 
instead of getting ready for them as 
they expected. But a little girl saw 
me and threw some crumbs out of 
the window. I went and ate them, 
and every day as long as the cold 
weather lasted she threw me crumbs 
— such good ones too — some of them 
cake ; and she gave me silk ravelings 
to make my nest of. I think that 
was a home mission, don't you ? " 

" Yes, my dear, it was," said Bach- 
elor. 

"You might tell that as one thing," 
said the wind. 

" I will," said Birdie. 

Said a daisy, " When I was very 



82 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

thirsty, one day, and the clouds sent 
down no good rain, the dear brook 
jumped tip high here, and splashed 
on me so I could drink, and I think 
that was a home mission." 

" Yes, yes," said the elm, " it 
was." 

" I know a story I could tell," said 
the ferns. 

" And I," said the elm; " one of 
many years ago, when I was but a 
little twig." 

" I know a home mission story 
too," said White Violet. 

" And I," said the brook. " Once I 
was almost all dried up and could 
hardly reach the lake, and a dear 




YES, YES," SAID THE ELM, "IT WAS.' 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 85 

lovely spring burst up and helped 
me along until the dry season was 
over." 

"And I, and I," chorused a thou- 
sand voices. 

" But what about foreign mis- 
sions ? " said the fish. 

" I sang a beautiful song to a sad 
old lady in a window, this morning," 
said a mocking-bird. 

" That's foreign missions/' said the 
chipmunk. 

" Some naughty boys hid another 
boy's hat yesterday, and I found it 
for him and blew it to his feet," said 
the wind. 

" I sent a bunch of buds to a sick 



86 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

girl, this morning/ 1 said the rose-bush 
with a blush. 

" I think we shall have no lack of 
foreign missions," remarked Bachelor. 

" But what can we do ? ' asked an 
•old gray squirrel. "We can't preach, 
nor teach. We can run errands and 
carry messages, but that isn't much." 

" You might be on the commis- 
sary department," said the wind. 

"What's that?" they all asked. 

" Things to eat. We shall need 
a great many, and you could all lay 
in a stock of nuts, enough to last 
all summer, for a great many." 

"Why, surely!" they cried, and all 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 87 

that fall such a hurrying and scur- 
rying from bough to bough there 
was as never was seen before. They 
worked very hard, storing up nuts, 
and the people came near not get- 
ting any at all. 

It must have been about a week 
from the time they sent their letter 
to Old Ocean, that one afternoon as 
they were assembled, waiting for the 
decision of a certain little commit- 
tee, which had been sent over be- 
hind a stone to decide who should 
be the leader of the choir, that up 
the stream came a weary little fish. 

He was unlike any fish that had 



88 A Chmttauqua Idyl. 

ever been seen in that brook, and 
caused a great deal of remark among 
the flowers before he was within 
hearing distance. 

He came wearily, as though he had 
travelled a long distance, but as he 
drew nearer, the old fish exclaimed, 
" There comes a salt-water fish ! per- 
haps he has a message from the 
ocean." 

Then the little company were all 
attention. 

Nearer and nearer he came, and 
stopped before the old fish with a 
low bow, inquiring whether this was 
the Chautauqua Committee. 

On being told that it was, he laid 



> 

K 
> 

q 
o 

g 



> 

> 

> 
f 

r 1 




A Chautauqua Idyl. 91 

a bit of delicate sea-weed, a pearly 
shell, and a beautiful stem of coral 
upon the bank, and said : " I have a 
message from Old Ocean for you. 
He sends you greetings and many 
good wishes for the success of your 
plan, and regrets deeply that he can- 
not be with you next summer; but 
he is old, very old, and he has so 
much to do that he cannot leave 
even for a day or two. If he should, 
the world would be upside down. 
There would be no rain in the brooks, 
the lakes would dry up, and the crops 
and the people all would die." 

" O dear ! and we should die too/ 5 
said the flowers. 



92 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

" Yes, you would die, too," said the 
salt-water fish. 

" He has a great many other things 
besides to take care of ; there are 
the great ships to carry from shore 
to shore, and there is the tele- 
graph, — " 

"What is telegraph ?" interrupted 
that saucy little squirrel who had no 
regard even for a stranger's presence. 

"Telegraph is a big rope that peo- 
ple send letters to their friends on. 
It is under the water in the ocean, 
and the letters travel so fast that we 
have never yet been able to see them, 
though we have watched night and 
day." 



A Chaittatiqua Idyl. 93 

" Wonderful, strange/' they all mur- 
mured. 

11 Old Ocean says," proceeded the 
messenger, " that he cannot give you 
all of his story, as it would be too 
long, but that he sends some of it 
written on this shell, and in this 
coral and in this bit of sea-weed. 
In the shell is a drop of pure salt 
water that if carefully examined will 
tell you many more wonderful things." 

They all thanked the fish kindly 
for coming so far to bring them these 
treasures, and begged him to stay and 
rest, but he declined, saying he had 
a family at home and must hasten, 
so he turned to go. 



94 ^4 Chautauqua Idyl. 

" Stay ! " cried Bachelor. " Wouldn't 
you be willing to come next summer 
and give us a lecture on the tele- 
graph ? " 

The fish laughed. 

" Bless you ! ' said he, " I couldn't 
do that. I don't know enough about 
it myself. Ask the lightning. He is 
the head manager, and will give you 
all the lectures you want. Good-by ! 
the sun is getting low, and I must be 
off." And he sped away, leaving the 
woodpecker writing down " telegraph " 
and " lightning" on one corner of his 
memoranda. 

And now the committee returned, 
having decided, by unanimous vote, 



A Chautauqua IdyL 95 

that the mocking-bird should be the 
leader of the choir, as he could sing 
any part, and so help along the weak 
ones whenever he could see the need 
of it. 

There was a pause after the com- 
mittee had been told all that had hap- 
pened during their absence, broken at 
last by Bachelor. 

"I've been thinking/' said he, "that 
it might be as well for us to have a 
reply to Ingersoll. ,, 

"What is that?" they asked, for 
they were getting used to strange 
things, and did not seem so surprised 
at the new word. 



96 A Chautauqua Idyl. 

" Ingersoll is a man that says there 
is no God, and he has written a great 
many things to prove it," said Bach- 
elor gravely. 

The other poor little flowers were 
too much shocked to. say anything, 
and they all looked at one another 
dumbly. 

" Is he blind?" asked a bird. 

" He must know better," asserted 
a fern. " No one could possibly be- 
lieve such a thing." 

" I don't know whether he is blind, 
but I think not," said Bachelor. 
11 They say he has made a great 
many other people believe as he does 
because he talks so beautifully." 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 97 

" How dreadful ! " said the flowers, 
in a sad voice. 

"They had a man at Chautauqua 
who answered all he said and proved 
that it was untrue, but every one did 
not hear him. I think we ought to 
have a day to answer Ingersoll, ,, 
again said Bachelor. 

" Yes, we must," said the north 
wind ; " and we will all prove there 
is a God. No one could have made 
me but God." And he blew and 
blew until the flowers crouched down 
almost afraid at his fierceness. 

When all was quiet again, out 
hopped a dignified-looking bird. " My 
friends," said he, " my wife and I went 



9 8 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 



t\<, 



to church last night, and they sang a 
beautiful hymn that has long been one 
of my favorites. I told my wife to 

listen hard, and 
this morning, with 
my help, she was 
able to sing it. I 
think it would help 
on this subject if 
we were to sing it 
for you now." 

"Sing, sing, 
sing," said the 
brook. 

The meek little wife at her hus- 
band's word stepped out, and together 
they sang this wonderful hymn : 




* 4 vv88T 

I THINK IT WOULD HELP 
ON THIS SUBJECT." 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 99 

The spacious firmament on high, 

With all the blue ethereal sky, 

The spangled heavens, a shining frame, 

Their great original proclaim ; 

The unwearied sun, from day to day, 

Does his Creator's power display, 

And publishes to every land 

The work of an Almighty hand. 

Soon as the evening shades prevail, 
The moon takes up the wondrous tale, 
And nightly to the listening earth 
Repeats the story of her birth : 
While all the stars that round her burn, 
And all the planets in their turn, 
Confirm the tidings as they roll, 
And spread the truth from pole to pole. 

What though, in solemn silence, all 
Move round the dark, terrestrial ball? 
What though no real voice or sound 
Amid their radiant orbs be found ? 



ioo A Chautauqua Idyl. 

In reason s ear they all rejoice, 
And utter forth a glorious voice, 
Forever singing as they shine, 
The hand that made us is divine. 

When they had finished, the whole 
congregation bowed their heads. 

"Yes," they said, "every* day we will 
show forth the greatness of God who 
made us, and that bad man will see 
and hear and believe, and the people 
will not be led away from God any 
more." 

" We will make that our great aim, 
to show forth the glory of God," they 
all cried together. 

So the little workers planned, and 
sent their messengers far and wide, 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 101 

over land and sea, and made out their 
programme ; and the lecturers spent 
days and days preparing their manu- 
script, — for aught I know they are at 
it yet. 

The flowers all have received their 
invitations to come, and some were so 
eager to be off that they packed their 
brown seed trunks and coaxed the 
wind to carry them immediately, that 
they might be early on the spot. 

Next spring when the snow is gone 
and the trees are putting forth their 
leaves, and all looks tender and beau- 
tiful, you will see the birds flying back 
and forth, very busy, carrying trav- 
ellers and messages ; the squirrels will 




" YOU WILL SEE THE BIRDS FLYING 
BACK AND FORTH." 



1 02 A Chautauqua IdyL 

go chattering to their store-houses to 
see that all is right, and to air the 

rooms a lit- 
tle; the birds 
will build 
many nests, 
more than 
they need, 
and you will wonder why, and will 
never know that they are summer 
nests for rent, else you might like to 
rent one yourself. 

The wind, too, will be busy, so busy 
that he will hardly have time to dry 
your clothes that hang out among the 
apple blossoms. 

You don't know what it all means? 






- "'-" &mm 



THE BIRDS WILL BUILD MANY NESTS, 




ft- ; : 




Wake up iquite early 
every morning and lis- 
ten. Be patient, and 
one morning, just as 
the first pink glow of 
the rising sun tinges 
the east, you will hear 
a watching tree call 
out, — 



A Chautauqua Idyl. 

And then all the lily-bells will chime 
out the call to prayer, the great red 
sun will come up and lead, and the 
little Chautauqua will open. 

You will hear the sweet notes of 
praise from the bird choir, and prayers 
will rise from the flowers like sweet 
incense ; you will see and hear it all, 
but will you remember that it is all to 
show forth the glory of God ? 



THE SCHOOL OF HOME. 

Let the school of home be a good one. Let reading be 
such as to quicken the mind for betf^r reading still ; for 
the school at home is progressive- 



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jingles still ; but the tales that lie under the jingles 
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What do Jack and Jill go up the hill after water for ? 
Isn't water down hill ? Baby is outgrowing Babyland. 

No more nonsense. There is fun enough in sense. 
The world is full of interesting things ; and, if they come 
to a growing child not in discouraging tangles but an 
easy one at a time, there is fun enough in getting hold 



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The reading habit has got to another stage. 
A dollar for such a school as that for a year. 



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Now comes Wide Awake, vigorous, hearty, not to say 
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Specimen copies of all the Lothrop magazines for 
fifteen cents ; any one for five — in postage stamps 
Address D. Lothrop Company, Boston. 



You little know what help there is in books for the 
average housewife. 

Take Domestic Problems, for instance, beginning with 
this hard question : " How may a woman enjoy the de- 
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The proper training of children, for instance, can't be 
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have to blunder through them. Why not ? Isn't the 
training of children woman's mission ? Yes, in print, but 
not in practice. What is her mission in practice ? Cook- 
ing and sewing ! 

Woman's worst failure then is due to the stupid blunder 
of putting comparatively trivial things before the most im- 
portant of all. The result is bad children and waste of a 
generation or two — all for putting cooking and sewing 
before the training of children. 

Now will any one venture to say that any particular 
mother, you for instance, has got to put cooking and sew- 
ing before the training of children ? 

Any mother who really makes up her mind to put fc*?r 
children first can find out how to grow tolerate childiwi 
at least. 



And that is what Mrs. Diaz means by preparation — a 
little knowledge beforehand — the little that leads to more. 

It can be done ; and you can do i t ! Will you ? It's a 
matter of choice ; and you are the chooser. 

Domestic Problems. By Mrs. A. M. Diaz. $i. D. Lothrop Company, Boston. 

We have touched on only one subject. The author 
treats of many. 



Dr. Buckley the brilliant and versatile editor of the 
Christian Advocate says in the preface of his book on 
northern Europe "I hope to impart to such as have never 
seen those countries as clear a view as can be obtained 
from reading" and "'My chief reason for traveling in 
Russia was to study Nihilism and kindred subjects." 

This affords the best clue to his book to those who 
know the writer's quickness, freshness, independence, 
force, and penetration. 

The Midnight Sun, the Tsar and the Nihilist. Adventures and Observations in 
Norway, Sweden and Russia. By J. M. Buckley, LL. D. 72 illustrations, 376 
pages. $3. D. Lothrop Company, Boston. 

Just short of the luxurious in paper, pictures and print. 



The writer best equipped for such a task has put into 
one illustrated book a brief account of every American 
voyage for polar exploration, including one to the south 
almost forgotten. 

American Explorations in the Ice Zones. By Professor J. E. Nourse, U. S. N 
?o maps, 120 illustrations, 624 pages. Cloth, $3, gilt edges $3.50, half-calf $6 
X). Lothrop Company, Boston. 

Not written especially for boys ; but they claim it. 

iv 



The wife of a U. S. lighthouse inspector, Mary Brad- 
ford Crowninshield, writes the story of a tour of inspection 
along the coast of Maine with two boys on board — for 
other boys of course. A most instructive as well as de- 
lightful excursion. 

The boys go up the towers and study the lamps and 
lanterns and all the devices- by which a light in the night 
is made to tell the wary sailor the coast he is on ; and so 
does the reader. Stories of wrecks and rescues beguile 
the waiting times. There are no waiting times in the 
story. 

All Among the Lighthouses, or Cruise of the Goldenrod. By Mary Bradford 
Crowninshield. 32 illustrations, 392 pages. $2.50. D. Lothrop Company, Boston. 

There's a vast amount of coast-lore besides. 



Mr. Grant Allen, who knows almost as much as anybody, 
has been making a book of twenty-eight separate parts, 
and says of it : " These little essays are mostly endeavors 
to put some of the latest results of science in simple, 
clear and intelligible language. " 

Now that is exactly what nine hundred and ninety-nine 
in a thousand of us want, if it isn't dry. And it isn't dry. 
Few of those who have the wonderful knowledge of what 
is going on in the learned world have the gift of -popular 
explanation — the gift of telling of it. Mr. Allen has 
that gift ; the knowledge, the teaching grace, the popular 
faculty. 

Common Sense Science. By Grant Allen. 318 pages. #1.50. D. Lothrop Com- 
pany, Boston. 

By no means a list of new-found facts ; but the bearings 
of them on common subjects. 



We don't go on talking as if the earth were the centre 
of things, as if Galileo never lived, H-uxley and Spencer 
have got to be heard. Shall we wait two hundred and 
fifty years ? 

The book is simply an easy means of intelligence. 



There is nothing more dreary than chemistry taught as 
it used to be taught to beginners. There is nothing 
brighter and fuller of keen delight than chemistry taught 
as it can be taught to little children even. 

Real Fairy Folks. By Lucy Rider Meyer, \. M. 389 pages. A1.23. D. Lo- 
throp Company, Boston. 

"I'll be their teacher — give them private scientific 
lectures ! Trust me to manage the school part ! " The 
book is alive with the secrets of things. 



It takes a learned man to write an easy book on almost 
any subject. 

Arthur Gilman, of the College for Women, at Cam- 
bridge, known as the "Harvard Annex," has made a little 
book to help young people along in the use of the dic- 
tionary. One can devour it in an hour or two ; but the 
reading multiplies knowledge and means of knowledge. 

Short Stories from the Dictionary. By Arthur Gilman, M. A. 129 pages. 60 
cents. D. Lothrop Company, Boston. 

An unconscious beginning of what may grow to be 
philology, if one's faculty lies that way. Such bits of 
education are of vastly more importance than most of 
us know. They are the seeds of learning. 



Elizabeth P. Peabody at the age of eighty-four years 
nas made a book of a number of essays, written during 
fifty years of a most productive life, on subjects of lasting 
interest, published forgotten years ago in Emerson's Mag- 
zzine, The Dial, Lowell's Pioneer, etc. 

Lasx Evening with Allston and Other Papers, 350 pages, $1.50. D. Lothrop 
Company, Boston. 



The wife of Fremont, the Pathfinder of forty years 
ago and almost President thirty years ago, has written a 
bookful of reminiscences. 

Souvenirs of My Time. By Jessie Benton Fremont. 393 pages. $1.50. D. Lo- 
throp Company, Boston. 

Mrs. Fremont has long been known as a brilliant con- 
verser and story-teller. Her later years have been given 
to making books ; and the books have the freshness and 
sparkle of youth. 



The literary editor of the Nation gathers together nearlv 
a hundred poems and parts of poems to read to children 
going to sleep. 

Bedside Poetry, a. Parents' Assistant in Moral Discipline. 143 pages. Two bind- 
ings, 75 cents and $1. D. Lothrop Company, Boston. 

The poems have their various bearings on morals and 
graces ; and there is an index called a key to the mor- 
alities. The mother can turn, with little search, to verses 
that put in a pleasant light the thoughts the little one 
needs to harbor. Hence the sub-title. 



Readers of poetry are almost as scarce as poetry — 
Have you noticed how little there is in the world ? how 
wide the desert, how few the little oases ? 

Through the Year with the Poets. Edited by Oscar Fay Adams. 12 bijou 
books of the months, of about 130 pages each. 75 cents each. D. Lothrop Com- 
pany, Boston. 

Is it possible ? Is there enough sweet singing ringing 
lustrous verse between heaven and earth to make twelve 
such books? There is indeed; and heaven and earth are 
in it ! 



Ginx's Baby, a burlesque book of most serious purpose, 
made a stir in England some years ago ; and, what is of 
more account, went far to accomplish the authors object 

Evolution of Dodd. By William Hawley Smith. 153 pages. $1. D. Lothrop 
Company, Boston. 

Dodd is the terrible schoolboy. How he became so ; 
who is responsible ; what is the remedy — such is the gist 
of the book. 

As bright as Ginx's Baby. A bookful c r managing 
wisdom for parents as well as teachers. 



Questions such as practical boys and girls are asking 
their mothers all the year round about things that come 
up. Not one in ten of the mothers can answer one in ten 
of the questions. 

Household Notes and Queries, A Family Reference-Book. By the Wise Blackbird. 
115 pages. 60 cents. 

It is handy to have such a book on the shelf, and 
handier yet to have the knowledge that's in it in one's 
head. 

viii iu 

31 * 





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